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Saturday, October 22, 2005

afganhs for afghans email

afghans for Afghans is a humanitarian and educational people-to-people project that sends hand-knit and crocheted blankets and garments to the beleaguered people of Afghanistan.

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Hello Knitters and Crocheters for Afghanistan,

We are happy and grateful to report that we made goal on our campaign to clothe 5,000 Afghan boys and girls for this winter.

Thank you so much for contributing to this collection of hand-knit and crocheted blankets and wool garments for the children. Thanks to those who spread the word among fiber friends. We received gorgeous, lovingly made gifts. Makes our hearts pound with joy and hope to see the personal generosity extended to people on the other side of the world.

The incoming flow of donations was very slow over the summer. Making our goal did not seem likely. However, about a week to 10 days before the extended campaign due date, the gifts started to arrive much, much faster -- we received probably half of the collection in the final week. Folks truly rallied to clothe the kids in time for the winter.

We delivered around 5,860 hand-knit and crocheted blankets and wool or wool-blend sweaters, vests, hats, mittens, and socks for shipment to Afghanistan. Of this total, hats numbered 3,625. Close to 500 pairs of mittens. Close to 500 pairs of socks. Almost 700 sweaters. Blankets numbered 570.

(We do receive inappropriate gifts that are not on our list of requested items and used items that we cannot send. We always make sure the useable items are sent to worthy local domestic charities where they will be appreciated.)

Our volunteer sorters and packers here in the San Francisco Bay Area were awesome. We had to hustle like never before to get the incoming packages sorted and reboxed for the container. The last two days were overwhelmingly busy (dark chocolate is our official fuel of choice). The end product was 103 obsessively sealed large cartons labeled and ready to travel overseas to Central Asia. We rented a 14-foot U-Haul truck to get the cartons to the staging area. (Ann drove, and no one got hurt.) We are fortunate to have attracted a capable, action-oriented, and fun local group that ensures that your donations get handled properly -- we get energized by seeing the fabulous, first-class incoming hand-knit and crochet work.

In addition to volunteer knitters and crocheters, our local sorting and packing crew, grassroots group and ad hoc organizers, flyer distributors, elann.com for their Canadian mailing service, our web talent (Marcy and Inga!), and many other voices that get the word out and cheer us on, we thank the San Francisco office of the American Friends Service Committee for partnering with us on the intake of thousands of packages and sharing space to work.

This current collection of hand-knit and crocheted blankets and garments will be distributed to orphanages, clinics, and children's centers in Herat, Jalalabad, and Kabul. We'll report back when we have a better sense of an arrival date and information about how our gifts were received. Transport and getting through customs and other often labyrinth steps will take a couple months. For this current load, we are working with International Orphan Care and state orphanages and other relief agency partners for transport and distribution.

Meanwhile, we hope that the image of thousands of Afghan children wearing our handmade, beautiful, warm gifts this winter warms you now. We may get photos eventually to share, but that would be icing on the cake.

Please note, for those who wish a written acknowledgment or confirmation, we do ask that you email us at the time you send your gift, or include a SASE postcard or envelope that we can mail back, or use the confirmation services of whichever postal service you use. We don't have the people-power and resources to mail out personalized, written notes, and appreciate your understanding. We rely on the efficiency and power of email and the Internet -- could not have developed and maintained this program (so relatively cheaply and fast) without it!

We often wish we could travel together to Afghanistan to distribute the blankets and garments firsthand and to throw a big blow-out happy party for the kids, but that takes a lot of funding and organizing. We do what we can from here and leave the other steps to the specialists who work in the field. Maybe one day we'll see peace and security prevail in Afghanistan ... and we can visit as tourists to a functioning, rebuilt country.

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Next due date?

We're not yet sure of the exact next due date, but probably during the first quarter of 2006. We'll post the information on our website when we can confirm. Meanwhile, we continue to welcome your donations of blankets and wool garments. Additional details will always be on our website for reference.

For program details and mailing addresses, see our Guidelines page --http://www.afghansforAfghans.org/blanket.html

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Again, a heartfelt thanks to all who joined in on this campaign to clothe 5,000 Afghan children for the winter.

The world's needs seem especially endless right now. We'll be keeping our focus as long as Afghanistan needs our caring and as long as generous American and Canadians continue to respond with their own hands. Thank you for extending your compassion, your time, and your talent. Thank you for remembering the Afghan people.